"Sharp, quirky, and occasionally nettlesome", Walking the Berkshires is my personal blog, an eclectic weaving of human narrative, natural history, and other personal passions with the Berkshire and Litchfield Hills as both its backdrop and point of departure. I am interested in how land and people, past and present manifest in the broader landscape and social fabric of our communities. The opinions I express here are mine alone. Never had ads, never will.

May 31, 2007

The proprietor of the new blog Jungle Trader, D.E. Cloutier, has a cautionary tail, er, tale to tell in this post about his early days as operations manager of California's Lion Country Safari. He accidently backs his car over a lion's tail and all the animals decide to get even.

"The cat was quite unhappy about my mistake. Roaring his discontent, he pounded on my windshield with his paws; then he ran his claws along one fender, removing the paint. Undoubtedly he would have liked to fire me on the spot, but he and the other animals in the preserve had no direct control over my future. Like most humans in corporate zoos, the menagerie at the park had to put up with the new guy or force him to quit.

Fortunately the lion suffered no permanent injury because of my carelessness, but he stood with his tail behind a tree the next time he saw my vehicle. He had the facial expression of a creature with a plan."

There is little that compares with the prospect of claiming a lost treasure hoard to set the pale flame of avarice alight. So when the publicly-traded treasure hunting firm Odyssey Marine Exploration announced on May 18th that it had discovered a sunken colonial-era ship somewhere in the Atlantic with 17 tons of gold and silver coins aboard worth $500 million, it captured the attention of more than just coin collectors. On May 29th the government of Spain has filed a lawsuit asserting its right to any treasure taken from a Spanish ship or from Spanish territorial waters. CNN reports:

'"Odyssey Marine Exploration has been requested in a letter to provide information concerning the identity of the ship and the material recovered, and has not responded with the details we were asking for," said Susana Tello, Culture Ministry spokeswoman.

"Spain has decided to go to (the) courts to claim its right in case the discovery is Spanish," she added.'

Odyssey Marine has code-named this shipwreck "Black Swan", which I'm certain they are aware is the name of a fictional pirate ship in a novel by Raphael Sabatini, and also a grand swashbuckler film from 1942. They say only that it lies in international waters about 40 miles of the SW tip of England where they need to be very secretive to maintain control of the site. If the vessel turns out to be Spanish, however, Spain has been successful defending its interests in treasure recovered from two other vessels lost in international waters. It sounds like the question of whether it is within England or France's territorial waters is less at issue than whether the vessel was Spanish, though under French law any wreck within its territorial waters must be reported to authorities and any artifacts are protected.

"Because the shipwreck was found in a lane where many colonial-era vessels went down, there is still some uncertainty about its nationality, size and age", (Odyssey co-chairman Greg) Stemm said, although evidence points to a specific known shipwreck..."We have treated this site with kid gloves and the archaeological work done by our team out there is unsurpassed," Odyssey CEO John Morris said. "We are thoroughly documenting and recording the site, which we believe will have immense historical significance."

The laws of salvage and abandoned property are beyond my scope of expertise so the following is idle speculation on my part, but one does wonder how you recover 17 tons of treasure from the ocean floor with kid gloves (on robot arms, presumably). The historian in me worries that the archaeological value of the wreck may be compromised by the salvage activity, particularly if positive identification of the wreck is more in the interest of the plaintiff in the suit than the salvage company. If the approximate location of the wreck has been reported accurately, it also seems to me that it would not be terribly difficult for a private investigator in a light plane to shadow the treasure hunters and determine its precise location, though Odyssey reports it has already recovered the entire hoard of coins so the time for that has probably passed.

In any case, there are high stakes involved, largely pecuniary but also archaeological, and I should perhaps practice what I preach. As a conservationist involved in preserving land I am willing to concede that there is such thing as a conservation development and that private investment dollars could be able accomplish what philanthropic dollars cannot in some instances. Why then, do I resist the notion that a for-profit treasure hunting outfit could do excellent and appropriate archeology and finance its work through the sale of treasure and certain artifacts? One reason is its raison d'etre. Archeology is secondary to salvage in this business model. Once the identify of the wreck is determined - or perhaps it is determined that it cannot be definitively proved - what further incentive is there to do world-class archeology amid the pieces of eight? Academic archaeologists do not routinely glean everything of value from their finds. They leave many things in situ and much of their study area undisturbed. There is too much extraction here for my taste, too much Indiana Jones.

That's the mature, responsible adult in me speaking. The kid in me, however, agrees with my cousin; " There is nothing more fun than buried treasure...unless it's unburied treasure."

More: Odyssey's position on claims made by other individuals or entities:

"If we are able to confirm that some other entity has a legitimate legal claim to this shipwreck when - and if - the identity is confirmed, we intend to provide legal notice to any and all potential claimants. Even if another entity is able to prove that it has an ownership interest in the shipwreck and/or cargo and that they had not legally abandoned the shipwreck, Odyssey would apply for a salvage award from the Admiralty Court. In cases such as this, salvors are typically awarded up to 90% of the recovery.

We do believe that most shipwrecks that we recover, including the " Black Swan ", will likely result in claims by other parties. Many will be spurious claims, but we anticipate that there might be some legitimate ones as well. In the case of the " Black Swan ", it is the opinion of our legal counsel that even if a claim is deemed to be legitimate by the courts, Odyssey should still receive title to a significant majority of the recovered goods."

"Spain thinks the wreck may be that of the Merchant Royal, a British ship that Spanish authorities think was operating under contract with the King of Spain before its sinking in 1641."

Curiouser and Curiouser:(7/11/2007) : If it's the Merchant Royal, a 17th century vessel, how come the edges of the coins are expertly milled?

"To mask the origin of the treasure, pictures released by Odyssey of the coins have the imprint on them digitally obscured to prevent identification, although the edges are expertly milled. Spanish coins began being produced in such a way only by the middle of the 18th century, 100 years after the Merchant Royal sank."

May 30, 2007

I think of those vegetables I despised as a child and now adore - beefsteak tomatoes, swiss chard, roasted Brussels sprouts - and attribute this change of heart partly to the satisfaction of having grown these things myself and partly to learning new ways to prepare them besides in a steamy, soggy mess. If I could plant only basil and tomatoes I would still be happy, and they are regular fixtures in my garden, but there are also spinach and baby greens, and broccoli and red cabbage, and cucumbers twinning toward the apex of their triangular trellises. I like nothing better than a tart rhubarb pie (strawberries optional), unless it is a cherry pie made fresh from the tree. I drink peppermint iced tea by the gallon thanks to herb gardens at Windrock and my own backyard.

And so I turn my hands to the earth of my garden and my thoughts to those gustatory pleasures to come. As a forager and gardener I mark the days of light and warmth by when my rhubarb will be ready for pies and tomatoes grow heavy on the vine. I carry the gardens of my youth in my heart, surprised to find myself inter-planting gladiolas among the beans and basil until I remember my grandfather's garden in the 1970s and its glorious ranks of glads. I think of my mother's strawberry beds and gooseberries she made into jam. Some children remember the tyranny of weeding before play, but I think of the pennies we got for every Japanese beetle dropped in the kerosene jar, and nickels for every tomato horn-worm.

What we cannot grow on our own patches of suburban earth, others in this region are glad to produce. Connecticut abounds in Farmer's Markets and there are half a dozen in Litchfield County. In my corner of the Northwest Corner you are more likely to visit a farm stand than a farmer's marker, unless you hop over the line on Friday afternoons to the one in Sheffield in the southern Berkshires. There are also a growing number of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in our area, where shareholders pick up bags of seasonal produce for an annual membership fee. Folks are more concerned with where their food comes from and how it is raised, and nothing gets you closer to the source - besides raising it yourself - than belonging to a CSA.

This is also a season of wild foods in plenty. Quahogs by the shore and cattails in the swamps entice me to culinary delights. Berry picking, inky-fingered, is all the sweeter at the field edge with the wood thrush trilling in the shadows of the forest. I have not yet attempted dandelion wine - my jack-of-all-trades grandfather Barker experimented with such concoctions but lacked the vintor's patience to produce something more than merely drinkable - but expect to give this a try as well this summer. I will have to wait until next year to try any of my bottled sunshine, but will certainly let you know the results.

May 29, 2007

There are more than 6 million worldwide subscribers to World of Warcraft (WOW), the swords and sorcery Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). Several times a day, Google leads some of these folks to my site looking for names for their dwarf characters. I happen to have the only dwarf among these 6 million players named Sterkfontein, and I know this because of a nifty feature called The Armory, where you can look up any character by name. Either ol' Sterk is just one of a kind and accepts no substitutes, or the name is too esoteric to be popular among the non-Afrikaans-speaking, non-paleontological-oriented sector of the gaming community.

In any case, this has given me an idea. Forget Zogby, forget fund-raising prowess; the real test of a candidate's popularity is how many times his or her name is adopted by someone's dwarf warrior or orc shaman in the WOW multiverse. Thus I have queried the names of most of the presidential candidates for the 2008 elections in the United States.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the results are in. As of May 29th, the most popular presidential contender's name in the World Of Warcraft gaming community is...

Al Gore.

There are 100 gnomes, undead, blood elves, tauren, humans, draenei, night elves, trolls, orcs and dwarves hacking and slashing their way to glory on World of Warcraft servers worldwide with some variant of this name. However, there are also 86 Obamas and 14 Barakobamas, which means that the Senator from Illinois leads the pack of declared Democratic contenders. There is a fighting guild named "Hillary Clinton for Presi" but no character that uses that name. There are 67 Clintons but it is unclear how many of those are named for her husband (the same goes for George Bush and his father, with 37 names). Bill Clinton alone gets 3 names, and Kucinich gets 1. Mickey Mouse out-polls them both, with 8.

On the Republican side, the winner is...

Reagan, with 251.

Even if some of these were misspellings by otherwise literate English majors trying to reference King Lear's daughter Regan (83 times), that still blows the rest of the field out of the water. John McCain has 32, but that won't take down Algore/Obama. The fact is, real life Republican candidates do not have the requisite whimsical, ironic, or blood-curdling qualities that gamers look for when naming their characters. I mean, the name Idi Amin appears 18 times, while Rudy Giuliani has 8, Mitt Romney only 5.

No, if the Republicans want a candidate who can compete toe to toe with virtual dragons and legions of zombies, this nonscientific poll suggests they would do better running Condoleeza (43), Peeweeherman (63) or Cheney (95). Yes, the Veep may have real-world approval ratings somewhere around Fidel Castro's, but he is still a player in the World of Warcraft.

In fact, to beat the Algore/Obama alliance; Mr. "Secure and Undisclosed"; or the late, "Great Communicator", one has to turn to the world of fantasy to find a more popular candidate. From the whole field of "Lord of the Rings" inspired names in use in the World of Warcraft, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you an elf for our times, the one and only...

May 27, 2007

On this Memorial Day weekend when we honor those who served in our nation's wars, I recall my ancestors (both near relations and more distant) who fought during the American Civil War. The predecessor to Memorial Day was Decoration Day, with origins claimed by both North and South and even by the African American community in war-ravaged Charleston, SC. I include in this roster the Confederates in the family as well as those who wore the Federal Blue and fought to preserve the Union (or for personal reasons of their own).

Nathaniel B. Abbott: Drummer, Company K, 133rd New York Volunteer Inf. (2nd Metropolitans) 1862-1863; Company A, 10th Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps (V.R.C.) 1863-1865. (He was left behind sick with Typhoid at Fortress Monroe when his regiment sailed to join Banks in Louisiana and was discharged 1/3 disabled in February, 1863. He reenlisted in the V.R.C in June, 1863 and served until November, 1865. Family tradition has him beating the long roll at Lincoln's funeral)

Charles G. Johnson: Wagoner, Company B, 5th New York Volunteer Inf. (Duryea's Zouaves) 1861-1863; Wagoner, Company G., 146th New York Volunteer Inf. (Garrard's Tigers) 1863, 1864; Wagon master; 1st Division (Griffin's), Vth Corps, Army of the Potomac 1864 (Enlisted for 3 years, served 2 years with 5th New York from Big Bethel to Chancellorsville, transferred with 3 years men to 146th New York and served with this unit from Gettysburg to North Anna)

[ He was my step Great-great Grandfather on the Livingston side.]

Jesse M. Jones: Hospital Steward, U.S.S. "Monitor" 1862. (Served during the epic battle of the Ironclads at Hampton Roads, VA, discharged in October 1862 before the "Monitor" was lost off Cape Hatteras, NC)

[ He was the first husband of my step Gr-great grandmother (2nd wife of Nathaniel Abbott) on the Abbott side.]

William N. Olmsted: Private, 7th New York State Militia 1861 (Served 30 days in the defense of Washington, D.C. at the outbreak of hostilities.)

[ He was my Gr-great grandfather on the Olmsted side.]

William Taylor: Trooper, company A, 1st New York Volunteer Cav. (Lincoln Cavalry) 1861 (fell from horse during training in October 1861 and discharged disabled, died of complications from injury in 1864).

Modern words do not adequately express what these me thought and did, why they fought and what the sacrificed. I honor in them what I do not fully comprehend, knowing that all was not as it appears in rose-tinted memory. Better to let the words of Abraham Lincoln speak for themselves:

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war...testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated...can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate...we cannot consecrate...we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who fought here have consecrated it, far better than our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be here dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom...and that the government of the people, by the people...for the people...shall not perish from the Earth."

May 26, 2007

Some of the brightest colors of spring, rivaling the brilliant yellow of narcissi but native to our seepage swamps and wetlands, belong to two glorious wildflowers. Marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) can so dazzle the eye on a drab April morning that cars slow down as they pass through the swamplands to soak up the color of these cheery wetland plants. There is nothing else in bloom in these places to rival them - not coltsfoot nor dandelion nor any other invasive plant - and for a few weeks in Spring they are the star of the swamp.

I have a wildflower garden in my little backyard. Actually, I have several of them, taking advantage of moist shady corners where Spring ephemerals and ferns give way to the spires of Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)and White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra) as the season progresses, or dry sunny places where Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) and Sundial Lupine (Lupinus perennis) grow, but I don't have the right place for Marsh marigolds so they are a pleasure I take on their own terms. My parents, with an emergent wetland that takes over their driveway in a sheet of ice in winter and produces the plumpest high bush blueberries in summer, have an excellent site for Marsh marigolds, but I look out for them on the road to Litchfield or in the Schenob Brook wetlands of the Southern Berkshires.

In late May and early June, one of our rarest wildflowers emerges in the swamps, usually a solitary wonder amid the thick ferns and sedges but sometimes in small clusters of golden yellow orchids. These are the Yellow ladyslippers, both Large (Cypripedium pubescens) and Small (Cypripedium parviflorum). There may even be a hybrid of the two with characteristics of both species and medium-sized blooms. Ladyslipper orchids are extravagant and seductive, both for the eye and for bees which are lured into their enveloping flowers but frustrated by the paucity of nectar they contain. In order to propagate by seed, Ladyslippers have to fool the same bee twice, and even then there can be many years when the flowers, their lipped-pouches sometimes as large as a quail's egg, produce no fruit. Seed germination also requires a mycorrhizal association with certain soil fungi that determine where they can grow in the wild.

They also reproduce vegetatively, however, and places like The New England Wildflower Society (NEWFS) have successfully propagated thousands of Large Yellow Ladyslipper for sale and as plantings in that New England treasure, Garden in the Woods. I have two of their plants growing in my garden and this year there are five stunningly beautiful orchids offset by curling brown sepals bobbing at the end of their stalks. Because Ladyslipper orchids are highly vulnerable to collection, you should only consider buying them from extremely reputable nurseries like NEWFS and they can set you back between $45-90 dollars depending on your source. Cypripedium pubescens does well in my shade garden and likes our calcium-rich soils, but other wetland loving ladyslippers require more saturated habitat than I can provide. I am happy to leave them where they are, haunting beauties of fen and forested wetland.

May 24, 2007

We Americans tend to forget that there are two Civil Wars in our past. The one we remember was, of course, the War Between the States, also styled "The War of Northern Aggression" by some in the defeated South and the "War of the Rebellion" by others in the North. Yet that earlier rebellion that ultimately won Independence for thirteen United States was terribly divisive within those former colonies, pitting neighbor against neighbor and splitting families. No less a Patriot than Ben Franklin had a Tory son, and the war had a decidedly internecine character in the southern colonies and on the New York Frontier.

In one branch of my family tree at the time of the Revolution, there was a family named Currie living in Radnor, Pennsylvania, not far from Valley Forge. Reverend William Currie had married Margaret Ross, whose brother George signed the Declaration and whose niece by marriage Betsy Ross was the flag-maker of legend. Reverend Currie faced a crisis of faith as well as of loyalty when war came, for his ordination vows included a prayer for the King and his congregation would have none of it. His letter of resignation on May 16, 1776 pleads "age and infirmity" but also extols his parishioners to

"let the Devotion Chamber be your Sanctuary till these troublesome times be overpassed: flee for refuge to the horns of the Alter, the throne of Grace, there offer up the Incense of your prayers and let the lifting up of your hands be as the even Sacrifice. Thus, my dear little flock, I bid you heartily farewell and am with great love and affection, your faithful pastor till death."

His position was clearly untenable, yet he tried to maintain an honorable neutrality. As it happened, the Ratification Treaty between England and the United States in 1783 freed him of the obligation to pray for the King and he returned as pastor to St David's in Radnor and is buried there in the old churchyard, next to the family plot of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne.

Things were harder for other members of his family who chose sides in the war. My direct ancestor Richard Currie (1750-1776) joined the 1st Militia of Pennsylvania, and leaving a wife and three small children he marched with his company to join the "Flying Camp" guarding East Jersey from the British and Tories on Staten Island and in New York. He made it as far as Amboy, New Jersey, but took sick and was send home, dying that September. His wife Hannah Potts died during the winter of 1777-1778, and the children were raised by their grandparents. The graves of Richard and Hannah Potts are alongside Reverend Currie's in Old St. David's Churchyard. Fortunately for me, their daughter Margaret Currie lived to a ripe old age and had children of her own, for otherwise I would not be here to write this account. She was my Gr-Gr-Gr-Gr-Great Grandmother.

Another son, William Currie, was a physician and commissioned Surgeon in Colonel Atlee's Musketry battalion in the spring of 1776 and served at the Battle of Long Island but had to resign because of ill health that September. There was also a younger son, Ross Currie, and he followed a different path that I might never have known about, had not one of his descendants living in Canada found this blog and shared the story of the Tory in the family.

It was not something that later generations in America chose to commemorate. I have a copy of The Genealogy of the Walker Family (Lewis Walker of Chester Valley PA and his Descendants 1686 - 1896 (Priscilla Walker Streets: 1896) that contains a great deal of material pertaining to the Curries, but it only records the colonial service of Ross Currie, and not his subsequent desertion to a loyalist regiment raised in Pennsylvania by the British.

Ross Currie was born in 1754, and like his older brothers enlisted in 1776. In fact, he was the first of the Currie family to join the patriots in arms, commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on January 5th of that year in Captain John Huling's Company, 2nd Pennsylvania Battalion. The 2nd was a new regiment, raised by Col. Arthur St. Clair, pictured at right, and Huling's was one of six companies taken by St. Clair that Spring to relieve the patriot forces bogged down in Canada, reaching the American army in Quebec on April 11th, 1776. The situation had deteriorated so greatly in Canada that the Siege of Quebec City had been abandoned and the American forces were withdrawing toward Montreal when the reinforcements arrived.

Boatner's Encyclopedia of the American Revolution describes how the troops of Arthur St. Clair were in the vanguard of an effort to seize Trois-Rivières - thought to be lightly defended - in an effort to regain ground lost in the retreat from Quebec. Lost in a swamp, they attacked a well entrenched position defended by 6,000 men under Simon Fraser. The outnumbered colonial troops attacked and were repulsed. 1,100 survivors eventually ran a gauntlet of mosquitoes, swamps, Indians and Canadian irregulars, but the expedition suffered 400 casualties including 236 captured. One of these was Ross Currie.

Whether he was exchanged or escaped is not clear. The 2nd battalion reorganized in the 3rd Pennsylvania Line in October, 1776 and in mid-November, Lieutenant Currie received a promotion in Captain John Reese's company. What happened to him in the year that followed remains to be discovered. I do not know whether Currie continued to serve with the 3rd Regiment, fighting in 1777 at Germantown. What is clear is that on December 1, 1777, with the British in Pennsylvania and Washington withdrawing toward winter quarters at Valley Forge, Ross Currie switched sides and enrolled as a Lieutenant in the Provincial Corps of Pennsylvania Loyalists. The following April he was promoted to Adjutant.

The Corps had in reality little more than battalion strength, authorized for just 8 companies with 24 sergeants, 24 corporals, 8 drummers and 400 privates in addition to its commissioned officers. Desertions and poor recruitment kept its actual strength far lower. The Corp's Colonel was General Howe, but this was largely ceremonial. It was actually lead by Lieutenant-Colonel William Allen, who had served in the same capacity in Ross Currie's old unit the 2nd Pennsylvania Battalion. Allen joined the British side at Trenton in the end of 1776, having resigned his commission in the American forces on July 24, 1776. The officers of the Pennsylvania Loyalists were selected by Allen, and he would have known Ross Currie from their prior service together. To receive a commission in the Corps, a Loyalist lieutenant was required to recruit 15 men for his company, though in fact several companies had no rank and file at all in the beginning. The first officers were not local men and may have had difficulty bringing along recruits, but the next batch included Currie and several other Pennsylvanians. I don't know if Lieutenant Currie won any of his neighbors over to the Tory cause, but clearly he was expected to do so. A recruiting notice for the Pennsylvania's Loyalists during this period promised that at the close of the war, each soldier would receive "50 Acres of Land, where every gallant Hero may retire, and enjoy his Bottle and Lass." The odds were long that any of them would see this promised land.

The service of the Pennsylvania Loyalists is a strange Odyssey. Like Kentucky's Confederate Orphan Brigade which could never go home while their state remained in the Union, the deserters and Tories in the Pennsylvania Loyalists were exiles. When the British evacuated Philadelphia, they marched away from their homes not knowing if they could ever return. They defended the army's baggage train at Monmouth, losing two men captured, but 170 officers and men of the regiment plus 8 women made it to the Jersey Shore and evacuated to New York.

They did not stay in New York long, for the widening conflict with France and the threat of war with Spain compelled the British to disperse their armies in North America to defend other vulnerable parts of the Empire. 10,000 troops left New York for Nova Scotia, the West Indies, Georgia, and West Florida. The Pennsylvania Loyalists were among three regiments sent to this latter place. After a stopover in Jamaica, a total of 13 officers and 145 other ranks arrived in Pensacola. The Maryland and Pennsylvania Loyalists on the expedition were combined into a single Corps of six companies in 1780, but higher powers opposed giving command to Lt. Col Allen because of his prior service with the patriots and the units were separated the following year.

War with Spain, meanwhile, came in the Fall of 1779 and most of the British holdings on the Gulf Coast fell to the Spanish. The Pennsylvanians and Marylanders of the United Loyalist Corps were part of a force which failed to retake Mobile, losing 13 captured and one man deserted on the fruitless march. The garrison at Pensacola expected to be attacked by the Spanish and for a long time its only reinforcements were 600 Choctaw and Creek Indians who had sided with the British. After a second sortie against Mobile failed, the garrison at Pensacola was in fact besieged, and while the Pennsylvania Loyalists (no longer part of a United Corps) distinguished themselves in an assault on the Spanish works, their victory was short lived and disaster followed hard on its heels. As an on-line history history of the Pennsylvania Loyalists recounts:

"Tuesday the 8th of May started routinely. Early in the morning the Pennsylvania Loyalists relieved the 16th Regiment of Foot in the advanced redoubt, ready to take their tour of duty.

Without warning, a shell thrown from one of two Spanish howitzers, arced into the redoubt and exploded just as the door of the powder magazine was opened to issue cartridges to the troops. The result was horrific.

The exploding shell ignited the powder in the magazine, blowing up over fifty of the Pennsylvanians and almost fifty sailors. The redoubt lay in ruins, open to assault. Seizing the moment, the Spanish immediately moved forward, leaving the stunned Loyalists just enough time to spike up the remaining cannon and bring off their wounded.

Within 48 hours the garrison would be surrendered, prisoners of war to the King of Spain. British West Florida ceased to exist."

The surrender terms permitted the loyalists to give their parole and sail for New York, but a transport carrying some of the Pennsylvania Tories was taken by two American privateers and ordered to make for Philadelphia, where those like Ross Currie who had deserted from the American side would have faced a very hard time and possible execution. Much to their relief, their ship was retaken by two Loyalist privateering vessels, one of which was named the General Arnold after the notorious traitor, and they reached New York with 9 officers, 4 staff officers, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, and 43 privates.

In 1783, they were evacuated to New Brunswick. Ross Currie was among those allotted land in Canada, where he appears on a 1785 list of 48 men, 11 wives, 9 children, and 1 widow from the Pennsylvania Loyalists granted lands there. He lived in St. Ann's Parish, New Brunswick, married Mary Almira Clarke who was almost half his age and started a family. After all he had endured, one hopes he realized at least some of the recruiting poster's promise that he might "retire, and enjoy his Bottle and Lass" but if so it did not last long. In 1790 at the age of 36, he drowned in the swift waters of the St. John's River. Reverend William Currie provided for his three young grandchildren in Canada in his will, so maybe there was some reconciliation possible in this family after the Revolution, our first American Civil War.

May 21, 2007

I'm blogging from the MetroNorth platform in Dover Plains, New York, waiting for a late afternoon train to the city. Dover Plains used to be the end of the line when I was growing up in these parts, and I took the train to boarding school from the decrepit little station alongside this new facility. WiFi is courtesy of an unprotected home network somewhere in the vicinity, for which I am most grateful. If ever they are traveling through my town, they can tap into my line as well. Thus a web of hot spots springs up in the unlikeliest of places.

I'm riding from Dover because the lots were full at both of the stations closer to my home. l'll be in Gotham for a couple of intensive days of real estate training as part of my work with the Trust for Public Land. The negotiation training that comes with it will come in handy as I try and dine out on less than the allotted $25 mandated by HR for diner expenses. I'd prefer not to be in Manhattan on such a beautiful spring day, but since I have decided not to work for vastly more hours than i was paid (the curse of non-profit true-believers), I spent the morning chaperoning my daughter's 1st grade class at the Sharon CT Audubon society's Nature Center, a place I recall from my youth with great fondness. If that is not a high quality of life, then I don't know what is!